The Allied Forces eventually poured into Nazi
Germany and freed it from Hitler’s regime - but they didn’t act alone. The Nazis had been resisted, sabotaged, and
exposed from all corners. Few of these fighters were uniformed soldiers. Most were civilians. And these eleven unlikely warriors became
the Nazis' worst nightmare. #11. Swingjugend Can you liberate a town from an oppressive
government through the power of dance? It’s easy when the worst you’re up against
is a cranky pastor who banned the prom - less so when you’re up against brutal Nazi soldiers. But that didn’t stop the Swingjugend, a
group of teenage and college-aged Germans in the late 1930s. They were mostly upper-class and educated,
and they loved American culture. Hitler sought to force conformity and a military
aesthetic on Germany’s youth, and he viewed these freewheeling dancers as a threat. So naturally, they kept dancing. As the Nazi forces cracked down and closed
most of Germany’s dance halls, the Swingjugend went underground. They spoke in English, making their plans
harder for the authorities to follow. Eventually, the government declared the group
illegal in 1941, and the leaders were sent to concentration camps - as were any found
dancing after the order. The teenagers were sent to the youth concentration
camp of Moringen, but the movement was never stomped out completely and many German teens
never embraced Nazism. After all, you can’t stop the beat. Hitler also found out the hard way that the
pen is mightier than the sword. #10. “Fritz” Gerlach As the Nazis took control in 1933, many ordinary
Germans were skeptical about their ruthless new leader. But the oppression hadn’t reached them yet,
so they figured - what’s the worst he can do? But one journalist, “Fritz” Gerlach, knew
better. The trained historian had been involved in
liberal student groups and was a staunch opponent of antisemitism, and starting in the 1920s
he served as editor of one of the biggest newspapers in Munich. And he used his position tirelessly to warn
the citizens of Germany that Hitler was dangerous. And when it became too dangerous to speak
out, he refused to stop. Hitler officially seized power in January
1933, and he wasted no time targeting his enemies. Gerlich’s words, calling Nationalism a philosophy
that would lead to tyranny and war, spread far - and Hitler wouldn’t stand for that. It would be less than two months before Gerlich
was arrested, and he was sent to Dachau - the prison camp that would become one of Germany’s
most notorious institutions. But he wouldn’t stay there long - just over
a year later, the brutal purge known as the Night of the Long knives occurred, killing
many of Hitler’s imprisoned enemies. Gerlich was one of the many casualties, but
his words were impossible to disappear, and the world’s awareness of Hitler’s brutality
would only increase thanks to him. This next agent of resistance opposed the
Nazis with a velvet glove. #9. Hanna Solf In her early years, Hanna Solf was a charmed
woman. She married the powerful Wilhelm Solf, the
Governor of German-occupied Samoa, when she was barely 20, and spent years in a tropical
paradise. But in 1928 the family moved back to Berlin
- just as the Nazis were beginning to move closer to power. The family was comfortable and not threatened
by the regime, but when Wilhelm died in 1936, Hanna could be silent no longer. She and her friend Elisabeth von Thadden were
determined to resist, and they had a secret weapon. Tea Parties They were, after all, harmless society ladies. They would host gatherings of intellectuals
who were no longer able to speak out publicly against the Nazi regime, and the so-called
“Solf Circle” became instrumental in helping those targeted by the Nazis flee the country. But they were eventually infiltrated by a
Nazi spy, and the entire Solf Circle was deported to Ravensbruck to face execution. While von Thadden was executed, Hanna Solf
and her daughter were saved by the Red Army, with Solf living until 1954. No one was safe in Nazi Germany, not even
men of God - but that didn’t stop this next one. #8. Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen Much of Hitler’s regime was dedicated to
targeting people for their ethnic background or their political views, but they weren’t
the only victims. Hitler was obsessed with the superiority of
the German bloodline, and as such he viewed the sick and disabled as undesirable. When 1939 rolled around, Hitler announced
Operation T-4 - a brutal series of sanctions that were designed to eliminate the disabled
population of Germany. Parents were encouraged to abandon their disabled
kids for elimination. Religious figures around the country were
horrified. And for at least one, it was too much to tolerate. Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen was known
for his anti-Nazi views, and had previously spoken out against their racist views. But even as oppression of the Catholic church
increased, von Galen became more vocal about the targeting of the disabled. It turned many Catholic figures against the
Nazis, and Hitler’s unofficial truce with the current Pope meant targeting the Bishop
of Munster would have been a bridge too far. Ultimately, while the targeting of the disabled
continued until the end of the war, Operation T-4 ended in 1941 - and Von Galen lived to
see Germany liberated before his death in 1946. He wasn’t the only Catholic figure to resist
the Nazi regime. #7. Gertrud Luckner Born in Liverpool to German parents, Gertrud
Luckner lived in Germany since she was a small child - and she was horrified to see her country
descend into fascism. A devout pacifist, she soon joined the German
Catholics’ Peace Association, a group responsible for helping many Jewish Germans escape the
country before it was too late. And while many Germans still saw Hitler as
a mere eccentric, she was warning that he was a genocidal madman - and on November 9th,
1938, she would be proven right. Kristallnacht was a brutal warning sign - but
for many, it was too late. As restrictions on Jews tightened, Luckner
and her fellow pacifists organized to help them buy food. When the deportations began, they hid Jewish
neighbors wherever they could and helped them escape when possible. But the Nazis were monitoring her actions,
and in 1943 she was arrested on one of her travels. She was sent to Ravensbruck concentration
camp, but the Nazis didn’t execute her. She was held as a political prisoner and survived
the war - but her will was undeterred. After the war, she promoted cooperation between
Jews and Christians, was honored for her work by Israel, and remained a strong peace activist
until her death in 1995. Sometimes, hope can survive in the darkest
places. #6. Stanislawa Leszczynska The German occupation of Poland was notoriously
brutal, and Leszczynska worked as a midwife until she and her family were forcibly relocated
when her street was converted to part of a Jewish ghetto. She helped the residents of the ghetto, delivering
them food and documents - and wound up sharing their fate when she was caught. She was deported to the infamous Auschwitz
concentration camp along with her daughter and countless Jewish prisoners. There, she met the infamous Dr. Mengele, and
her experience in birth led to her being drafted by him to report on birth conditions in the
camp. It would lead to an opportunity for salvation. She worked as a midwife at the camp, and was
horrified to learn that the infants were to be drowned after birth. She sabotaged this effort, tattooing Jewish
babies who looked sufficiently German so they would be taken away and adopted out by German
families. It’s estimated that she saved as many as
five hundred children, and saved the lives of countless mothers by treating them after
birth. She survived the war and continued working
as a midwife, dying in 1974 - and a campaign is ongoing to make her a Roman Catholic saint. She wasn’t the only health care worker to
oppose the Nazis - but none made a bigger impact than this next one. #5. Nancy Wake Nancy Wake was making history from her early
life in New Zealand, becoming one of the first women of Maori descent to marry a European. She lived in France with her husband when
the country fell to the Nazis, and she was horrified by their brutality. While she was a trained journalist and certainly
not a warrior, she felt the need to take action. Working as an ambulance driver, she eventually
fell into the company of Captain Ian Garrow’s secret escape line, and they realized Wake
had a unique advantage. She was really, really good at escaping. Working as a courier, her unassuming and feminine
appearance made her less likely to be suspected by the Nazis. But they were soon on her trail, and she had
to flee France. Tragically, her husband back in France was
killed - but that just made her more determined. She would return to France to train warriors
in the resistance and personally lead a branch of 7,000 members. She would continue her mission after the war,
even briefly becoming a British intelligence officer. One of the most highly decorated women in
World War II history, she would become famous for once killing an SS sentry with her bare
hands - and would live to the age of 98 after the war. We suspect Death was a bit nervous to try
to take her. But few of World War II’s warriors willingly
stared death in the face like this man. #4. Witold Pilecki. Witold Pilecki was already a veteran when
the Nazis invaded Poland, having served in the Polish-Soviet war when he was still a
teenager. He had become a military officer, but the
army was completely overwhelmed by the German war machine. He refused to evacuate with his fellow soldiers
to France, and instead joined the Polish resistance. He and a large number of his men were eventually
captured and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, but debates remain as to the circumstances
of his capture. Was he simply caught - or did he allow himself
to be caught? While in the camp, he became a secret resistance
fighter while imprisoned. He barely avoided being shot, and took every
opportunity to sabotage the Nazis and steal food for his fellow prisoners. He collected information on the camps and
reported it back to his superiors when he was able to escape from the camp in 1943 while
working the night shift. It became the first comprehensive report on
the brutal conditions of the Nazis camps, and Witold returned to duty and fought in
the Polish resistance until the end of the war. But tragically, he would not be able to continue
that legacy for long after the war. He was captured while spying for the Polish
government-in-exile by the communist authorities in 1947, and executed a year later. Many of the most heroic figures of the war
were the ones most in danger. #3. Vera Atkins Growing up in Romania as Vera May Rosenberg,
the Jewish woman watched with fear as the Nazis gained power. In 1937 - not long before the start of World
War II - she decided to move to Britain, and her education and skills in language let her
befriend many diplomats. As tensions ramped up, she was recruited by
Britain’s top spymasters to collect intel on Nazi Germany, and that meant she would
have to head back into enemy territory - a mission she accepted. And it would only be the beginning of a successful
spy career. One that would send echoes through the world
- and Hollywood. Atkins became the head of the British spy
agency’s F division, which was tasked with infiltrating France. She was a master at blending in thanks to
her European roots, and managed to survive the war. Her involvement in evacuating Poland’s Enigma
code breakers helped the Allies win the war, and after the Nazis fell she was key in helping
track down many of the regime’s worst war criminals. The unassuming woman acted more like a secretary
than the skilled spy she was - which leads many to believe she was the inspiration for
the character of Moneypenny in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. Few heroes, though, were more unlikely than
the next one. #2. Virginia Hall If you’re looking for a spy, you’re probably
not going to guess it was the mousy-looking woman with the wooden leg. That’s exactly what Virginia Hall was betting
on. Having lost her leg in a hunting accident
as a young adult, the American woman worked as a consular clerk in Poland in the 1930s. She was turned down for a position as a diplomat
because they didn’t hire the disabled, so she resigned - and went abroad to work for
Britain’s spy agency, the Special Operations Executive. She was soon deployed to France, only the
second female agent to ever be deployed to the occupied country. Her exploits there would be the stuff of legend. Nazi-occupied France was a dangerous place,
but Hall knew how to get intelligence. She befriended a brothel owner for intelligence,
helped downed pilots escape back to England, and even liberated people from a prison camp. “The limping lady” became one of the most
wanted people in Vichy France, and she was eventually forced to flee after organizing
a jailbreak of twelve captured agents. She went on the lam, walking across the Pyrenees
to neutral Spain where she was arrested. The Americans organized her release, and she
continued in the spy game - eventually becoming one of the first women ever hired by the CIA. But some heroes come from the most unlikely
places. #1. Chiune Sugihara The Japanese and Germans were close allies,
their alliance lasting the duration of the war, so Japanese diplomats had a special status. Chiune Sugihara was an educated man, fluent
in Russian and German, and he was a fast-rising diplomat in the years before the war. He would be appointed as vice-consul at the
Japanese consulate in Lithuania in 1939, ordered to report on Soviet and German actions in
the region. He cooperated with Polish intelligence, but
it would be less than a year before the Germans rolled in and conquered Lithuania. And Sugihara had a choice to make. When the Germans occupied a country, the Jewish
residents quickly found themselves under fire. Countless refugees tried to flee, but it was
near impossible to find a place to take them. While the Japanese government had strict regulations
for visas to come to Japan, Sugihara ignored those orders. He began granting visas to Japan for Jewish
refugees, working around the clock signing them and ultimately saving at least 2,200
people and maybe many more - all the while defying his superiors and risking his own
life had he been caught. While he and his family survived the war,
it would ruin his career in the Foreign ministry, and it would be decades before his actions
were properly acknowledged. But before his death in 1986, he would be
acknowledged by Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. For more on resistance to the Nazis, check
out “How a Soldier Single-Handedly Liberated an Entire German Occupied City” or watch
“What Actually Happened to Nazi Leaders After World War 2?” for more on the bad
guys.
